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SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft splashes down with NASA, ESA astronauts
Update: A SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying four NASA and ESA astronauts has safely splashed down off the coast of Florida, wrapping up an exceptionally busy four weeks of Dragon launch, docking, undocking, and recovery operations.
For the second time in ten days, a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft has undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) and is on its way back to Earth.
This time around, four professional Crew-3 astronauts from NASA and ESA boarded Crew Dragon and departed the station after almost six months in orbit, handing off command and control of the US segment to Crew-4. After grappling with a 12-day delay, SpaceX successfully launched Crew-4 to the ISS on April 27th and the astronauts arrived at the station later the same day. Crew-4 was only able to launch after a separate crew of exclusively private astronauts known as Axiom-1 finally departed the ISS on April 24th.
Falcon 9 launched Axiom-1 and Crew Dragon on April 8th on what was initially supposed to be a 10-12 day mission in orbit. As a result of extensive weather-related recovery delays, Axiom-1 instead splashed down on April 25th. Those collective delays ultimately gave Crew-3 around two extra weeks in orbit before Crew-4 was able to take over, freeing them up to return to Earth.
NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, Kayla Barron, and German ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer began preparing for their departure in earnest about half a day prior on May 4th and boarded Dragon a few hours before undocking. Now verging on routine, Crew Dragon undocked from the ISS without issue at 1:20 am EDT on May 5th, kicking off a roughly 24-hour return to Earth.
Crew-3’s Dragon will perform a final deorbit burn shortly before midnight on May 6th and, if all goes well, the spacecraft’s reusable capsule will splash down off the coast of Florida a bit before 1am EDT. It will be Crew Dragon’s second astronaut reentry and splashdown in ten days after Axiom-1 completed the same process on April 25th.
In just four weeks, SpaceX will have launched Ax-1, docked Ax-1 with the ISS, undocked and recovered Ax-1; launched Crew-4, docked Crew-4 with the ISS; and undocked and recovered Crew-3 – a series of eight major Dragon operations involving three of the company’s fleet of four reusable orbital spacecraft. Given the numerous delays suffered by all three missions as a result of their close proximity, it would be hardly surprising if NASA and SpaceX explicitly try to avoid that level of cadence for future ISS-related Dragon operations.
Nonetheless, SpaceX and NASA are already in the late stages of preparing an uncrewed variant of Dragon 2 for the company’s 25th ISS cargo delivery. CRS-25 is scheduled to launch as early as June 7th and will be SpaceX’s third Dragon launch and third mission to the ISS in less than two months. Later this year, SpaceX Dragons are scheduled to support CRS-26 in September, Axiom-2 as early as Q3 2022, Crew-5 in October, and Polaris Dawn – a free-flyer mission – in Q4 2022.
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Tesla has started to deploy the 2026 Summer Update to owners across its fleet, and among the biggest changes are improvements to Navigation, a new startup animation for the Model 3 and Model Y, Caraoke scoring, and new capabilities for Grok.
As the update has started making its way to some cars, we can now see a few of the features operating in real-time. We will show you what some of the new features look like in this article, along with some additional details on what changed.
Not all of the new features in the 2026 Summer Update have quite made an appearance, but some of them have, so we’ll show those here:
New Animation Screen for 3/Y
Tesla is rolling out a new startup animation for Tesla Model 3 and Model Y owners. This is present in Launch Edition and Performance Model 3 and Model Y, but other trim levels do not have anything like this.
The new animation screen on Model 3/Y with the 2026 Summer Update
Apparently color will also be customizable: pic.twitter.com/wSdwggtG3S
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 27, 2026
Owners can adjust the color associated with the startup animation to suit their preferences. It is a surprise that more automakers do not focus on this animation for their vehicles; it can be a great first impression piece and make the car immediately feel more luxurious.
Tesla has included this on more premium trims, but it is nice to see it on the Model 3 and Model Y.
Grok Improvements
Grok can now adjust more things in the car outside of the Navigation system. Now, drivers can adjust anything from climate to driving settings by simply speaking to the AI assistant in the car:
@Tesla‘s AI assistant (Grok) with its new vehicle commands in action.
Set the climate, your destination and vehicle settings all in one go! pic.twitter.com/0bBTqaAk6G
— Not a Tesla App (@NotATeslaApp) July 28, 2026
You don’t even have to push a button, either. Instead, you can just say “Hey, Grok,” if you have it enabled. That feature rolled out with the 2026 Spring Update just a few months back.
This is a great feature, especially pertinent for the Robotaxi platform, as there will be no buttons inside the Cybercab when it eventually starts giving rides to the public. It also broadens Grok’s capabilities, which were relatively limited in terms of vehicle setting adjustments beforehand.
Tesla briefly offered one Robotaxi part in its Parts Catalog for your personal car, only to remove it just a short time after it was first noticed.
Tesla’s Robotaxi camera washer apparatus was briefly available for purchase on the company’s Online Parts Catalog. The camera washer was first noticed on Model Y Robotaxi vehicles about six months ago in Austin.
🚨 Tesla looks to have installed Camera Washers on the side repeater cameras on Robotaxis in Austin
pic.twitter.com/xemRtDtlRR— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) January 23, 2026
First noticed by Not a Tesla App, the Camera Washer entries appeared for the new “Juniper” Model Y under a category called “Halo,” which has also now disappeared. Interestingly, Halo probably is related to Tesla’s internal “Project Halo,” which was a project that aimed to retrofit customer-owned Model Ys into functional Robotaxis.
This hardware addition would likely be required for the vehicle to operate as a Robotaxi, as the Camera Washer seems to be a non-negotiable part of the vision-based system Tesla utilizes for self-driving efforts.
However, this part has since been removed and is no longer visible on the EPC.
Now the true question lingers: Why would Tesla add this Camera Washer to the Model Y parts catalog? Is it planning to make it available for owners to utilize on their own cars for personal use, or will it become a prerequisite for Robotaxi operation in customer-owned cars?
While discussing the upgrade options for Hardware 3 vehicles during the Q1 Earnings Call, Tesla CEO Elon Musk had said that the company could establish small, satellite shops that would upgrade cameras and self-driving computers. Perhaps this same strategy could be utilized for vehicles that want to be included in Robotaxi but do not have the correct hardware.
AI4 is currently represented as capable of unsupervised self-driving, and the same was said about HW3 at one point, only for Tesla to admit last quarter that it would, unfortunately, not be possible. Perhaps AI4 vehicles might need this camera washer as a prerequisite, just as HW3 cars will need that camera and computer upgrade.
This could be the first hint of that’s where we are headed.
Tesla has started rolling out a broader change to the ride experience for its Robotaxi fleet by silencing turn signals, but the change is certainly polarizing.
Tesla has generally made it clear that its purpose-built ride-hailing platform, Robotaxi, will cater to the rider in nearly every way possible. This includes having climate preferences, music, and other personal settings loaded up in the car as the rider enters.
But Tesla is taking it a step further by muting turn signal chimes altogether, a change that appears to be a way to make the ride more peaceful:
Tesla has finally turned off the blinker/turn signal noises in their Model Y Robotaxis.
This is a small update, but will definitely be noticeable for riders. It didn’t really make much sense to leave the turn signal sound on when it’s Unsupervised. pic.twitter.com/ITwx60PAMO
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) July 27, 2026
However, there are a handful of people who are not thrilled about this change. Turn signals are a conditioned part of the human mind for those who ride in a car regularly.
Taking a turn without one feels strange and odd, and not hearing it click while activated could set off some alarms for riders, who might use the noise as confirmation that other drivers know of their intention to turn.
I kind of like it being on, threw me off when riding with Zoox who has had it disabled
— Dan Burkland (@DBurkland) July 27, 2026
Turn signal noises are still audible in customer cars, so if you use FSD in your personal vehicle, you will still hear the turn signal.
The move is certainly one that is unique, but not one that separates it from other ride-sharing services. In a normal car, the clicking sound confirms to the driver that the blinker is active. In a fully driverless Robotaxi, that feedback serves no purpose for passengers, other than peace of mind.
Tesla unlocks in-car web conferencing to extend Google Meet, Teams and beyond
Tesla Summer Update begins rolling out: a look at the new features
